She never recalled her dreams unless it had been a particularly vivid nightmare. Shaking off the weird feeling, Diana showered and got in touch with her sisters.
“A black circle, you’re sure?” Gia asked. “What did you find exactly?”
Diana filled them in on the details, skipping over Alec’s involvement for the moment. “I believe the circle has been active for some time. They may be involving children in their rites. I don’t know if the children are being sacrificed. No one died in the basement, or any other part of the house, but they could be working up to it. Two children have gone missing in suspicious circumstances. One is a Broussard servant’s son. The other is the little girl, Katie. They’re probably moving around a lot, trying to shield themselves from detection with spells and by using houses not tied to them in some way, properties favorable to conducting magic.” Diana held her breath, waiting for the others to confirm what she suspected.
“Something is wrong, very wrong with the Mother. . .or with us,” Serin said, her mental voice near a whisper.
“Agreed,” Gia said slowly. “If Diana is right, and I’ve never known her to be wrong, then these witches are acting outside natural law in such a way that She must be unaware of them. While we couldn’t find a child victim of a human predator so quickly, we should have been aware of a black circle forming much earlier.”
Worry flooded through Diana at Gia’s words. She had suspected the same thing, but acknowledging it openly made it feel real.
“Wait,” Logan broke in anxiously. “Wouldn’t we have felt a shift in the balance ourselves even if the Mother wasn’t aware of it? Aren’t we her first line of defense? She created us as guardians and wardens. Don’t we feel the shifts in the balance without her knowledge?”
“Sometimes,” Gia answered with an unhappy sigh. “We should feel the shift if we are near enough, but sometimes the Mother feels it first and then relays it to us. It’s actually simply based on proximity. There isn’t a great difference between the two in terms of time and our perception. But it’s clear that none of us felt the shift in the balance that should have occurred when the circle first formed.”
“Are we broken?” Logan asked, her young voice sounding desolate.
Diana scowled. “I don’t feel any different. I’m just frustrated that I can’t detect the circle. My gifts are working the same way they always have,” she said. “My gut says there’s something about these witches. Something different. They are somehow shielding their activities from us. Maybe they’ve found a new way to hide from the Mother as well.”
She related what she’d learned about Pedro and the strange nature of his compulsion.
“That might be true,” Gia said. “We don’t feel a shift until the damage has been done in the non-magic cases. It takes so much more for us to become aware of them. We’ve attributed that to the overall increase in violence in the human world. But there is another possibility. Perhaps She is going to sleep again.”
Diana sincerely hoped not. The times in their history when the Mother slept had been troubled for all magical and non-magical beings alike.
“Do you need help on this, Di?” Serin asked. “I can shuffle some things and be on my way there the day after tomorrow. With this and the Denon case, you might need backup.”
“No, you have your hands full in Mexico. Besides I. . .I may already have some help.”
There was absolute silence for a long moment.
“Who is it?” Serin asked.
“The vampire leader’s son offered to make reparations for his families involvement,” Diana said flatly.
“Alec Broussard!” Logan gushed. “Isn’t he that super hot, most eligible bachelor vamp? He’s like their equivalent of Prince William or JFK Jr. Wait…I thought he was in Europe or something?”
Diana frowned at Logan’s reaction. Was she following gossip on Alec like some kind of fangirl?
“He was keeping tabs on his parents,” she explained. “Apparently he doesn’t trust them to stay out of trouble. When one of their servant’s sons went missing, he came home to investigate.” She didn’t offer an opinion on how atypical that was.
“How exactly is he helping?” Serin asked, suspicion threading her voice.
“He brought the second missing child to my attention and is having one of his men care for the father. It sounds like this Pedro’s memory was tampered with enough to do some serious damage. The vamp is also tracking down the trash the witches left behind in the house that his mother’s servant got rid of. . .and he’s a Daywalker. Also a sensitive, it seems.”
Someone whistled.
“Interesting,” Logan said.
Serin seconded the sentiment.
“And you’re all right with this?” Gia asked, her voice doubtful.
“After tonight, I’ll be done with him,” Diana said. “His stupid vampire honor will be satisfied, and I won’t have him underfoot.”
“O-kay,” Serin said, drawing out the syllables. “Well, just be careful around him.”
“Careful my bodacious booty!” Logan chimed in. “You should keep that tasty piece around for as long as possible.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Diana said, rolling her eyes. “Both of these cases are too important to bring in an outsider for long.”
“Yeah, okay, but it would be nice for you to have some form of support. . .on this case,” Logan replied a little too enthusiastically.
Diana sincerely hoped Logan wasn’t working up to a lecture about mixing with others again. She knew the Air Elemental loved her unreservedly, but it wasn’t the first time she’d tweaked Diana about her loner status.
Logan was always encouraging her to blow off some steam with a guy or make friends outside their circle. It was a teensy bit hypocritical, considering she didn’t do either of those things herself. But Logan had her mother’s family to lean on. They had long ties to the various Elemental lineages, and more than one had come from their bloodline.
As for men, Logan was a shameless flirt, but she took her legacy seriously. She pushed away the men who flocked to her when they got too close, saying she couldn’t afford a real diversion, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun.
“Don’t worry about me—I have all of you,” Diana said, the last bit tongue and cheek.
They did have each other, just not in person. Not all at once anyways.
“If you do need more help, I can be there in four days,” Gia said.
Diana smiled, touched at their concern. “I hope this will be over by then. Don’t worry. I’m a multitasking machine,” she assured them. “I’ve got some background research to do on the Denon case, and then I’m meeting the vamp and the father of the missing boy.”
“Okay, but if this goes south, make sure to keep us informed and one of us will be there,” Serin said.
Logan and Gia echoed Serin’s words, and all three withdrew from the conversation.
* * *
Diana tracked the vampire to Pedro’s building a half hour ahead of schedule.
The apartment building in Brookline was in a nice and quiet residential neighborhood. According to her research, the Broussard’s owned hundreds of these all over the state, under different names and shell corporations. They also owned warehouses and office buildings up and down the east coast. Their nearly limitless funds were a major source of contention for her.
Diana had money now, but she vividly remembered what it was like not to have it. Her resentment of the vampires who hoarded it was instinctive.
Technically, plenty of rich humans did the same thing, and she felt the same things about them when she witnessed their excesses on television or saw it in person. But it was the vampires she remembered to hate long after she forgot about whatever rich human asshole had pissed her off. At least the humans occasionally used their obscene wealth for good.
There were a number of good samaritan’s out there that did their best to help move humanity forward. A lot of them did good wo
rk, but there wasn’t a single vampire among them. Since their kind considered themselves not only outside, but also above humanity, it wasn’t really surprising there wasn’t a great philanthropic spirit in their ranks.
Pedro’s building didn’t have a whole lot of security in human terms. There was a security door and bars on the first floor windows, but that was about it. In supernatural terms, however, the building was on par with a bank. It was heavily warded against anyone not in the Broussard clan and the humans who lived there.
That level of security was unusual for a mere rental property, one far from the main coven house. Perhaps a member lived here part time.
No. It wasn’t glamorous enough. Her senses told her a vampire had come and gone regularly in the recent past, but probably not with enough frequency to be a resident. I doubt they send one of their own kind to collect the rent.
It was Alec’s signature, but that meant he’d been here fairly frequently in the past week. More often than she would have suspected.
She made her way into the building, the security door and wards inconsequential. The wards didn’t even register her presence. She may as well have been a ghost. The apartment she sought was on a third floor, at one end of the hallway. After confirming that the inhabitants were well away from the door, she slipped inside.
It was quite nice inside, light and airy with hardwood floors that were worn but well kept. The furniture was also worn, but the scarred surfaces were polished and a cushion on the couch had been carefully mended.
Voices came from the back corner of the apartment, but she wasn’t concerned with the vamp and his servant right now. Turning away from the voices she crossed the central living area. Instinct guided her to the room at the end of the hallway off the living room. The door swung wide on silent hinges.
Toys were neatly arranged in shelves, and unlike the furniture in the living room, most of it looked fairly new. The bed had sheets with the Cars characters.
It was the room of a happy and well-loved little boy. Diana sat on the bed and closed her eyes, holding a stuffed cartoon turtle. She focused her mind, searching through the signatures of the people who’d been in this room. Alec and a human who was probably his servant were the last. Farther back in time there was another human man. Presumably Pedro, the father. She went further back, trying to find the last time the boy was in this room.
There you are. And not alone. A woman had been in this room. This was where the boy had been taken from. Was it a babysitter? She didn’t think so. The boy didn’t seem to know this woman. She could see the scene playing in reverse as the woman knelt by the bed, trying to coax the little boy-shape into taking her hand.
Diana went back as far as she could to see if the woman had been there before, but whatever images she could retrieve were too unclear. She turned toward the door, not really surprised to find Alec standing there.
“What is the boy’s name?” she asked.
“Elias,” he said evenly, pronouncing it with a Mexican accent. “When did you get here? I didn’t hear you come in.”
But you still knew I was here. Hmm.
She shrugged. “I came early. I wanted to see his room alone. How is the father?” she asked, rising from the bed.
“The same, I think. He recognizes me now. But he still doesn’t respond well to strangers,” Alec said by way of warning. “Do you want me to bring him in here?”
“No. This may be too much for him,” she said, gesturing to the room.
“Can you use any of the little boy’s possessions to find him? I had a witch scry with some of his toys as aids, but they didn’t get anything,” he said.
“No. It doesn’t work that way. Children aren’t traceable. The innocent aren’t. Is the father in the kitchen?”
“Yes. We sometimes have to remind him to eat. He’s…not improving.”
“Let’s go,” she said, waving him in front of her.
She followed him out through the bright sunny living room, its warm and inviting atmosphere striking a discordant note to the grim mood.
Alec pushed open a cream-colored swinging door, revealing an equally pleasant sunlit kitchen. It was cheerful and welcoming despite the second-hand furniture and chipped paint on the windowsill. Inside was a short and stocky muscular man wearing a tracksuit. He was in his late thirties or early forties with salt and pepper hair. Daniel, presumably.
He was leaning over a dark little man with a heavily lined face and vacant expression sitting at the kitchen table. Daniel looked up as they entered and shifted to one side to give them room. He wasn’t what she expected.
Most vampires picked their human servants for their looks, and they almost always dressed nearly as well as their employers. It was a point of pride with vamps. Their servants were a reflection of themselves, and image was everything. She would bet good money that his mother’s servant Dietrich wouldn’t be caught dead in a tracksuit.
Diana turned her attention to the room and the man who had so clearly loved his son. There were signs of the boy here, too. Child-sized cups and plates with cartoon designs. But they were dirty and shoved to the side of the counter. The regular plates were clean and put away, but a cartoon cup was lying on the floor in the corner unnoticed. The rest of the room was clean. Only the things that had belonged to his son were soiled. It was like Pedro couldn’t see them anymore. She was glad Daniel had been wise enough to leave things be.
It had to be a black spell. Only strong black magic would be able to wipe a person from another’s memory. The effort to wipe a child from his father’s mind had to be herculean. Parental bonds were usually the strongest, though there were always exceptions.
Alec stepped toward Pedro. He leaned down, placing a reassuring hand on the unresponsive man’s shoulder. “I have a visitor for you, Pedro.” He gestured to Diana standing behind him. “Her name is. . .”
She scowled at him, but Alec didn’t blink.
“It’s Diana,” she said grudgingly.
He rewarded her with a dazzling smile and turned to Pedro. “Pedro, this is Diana. She’s here to help,” he said confidently.
“Wait outside,” she said, piqued that he’d gotten her name out of her.
Alec gave her a resigned look but left with Daniel without protest. Diana knelt at Pedro’s side. He didn’t turn to look at her. Reaching out, she took his hand. He turned in her direction with eyes that couldn’t focus.
Then he started to scream.
9
Alec and Daniel rushed back into the room, but Diana waved them away. She caught Pedro’s flailing hands with one of hers and used the other to tilt Pedro’s head toward her, forcing eye contact.
The second his bloodshot brown eyes met her clear green ones, he stopped struggling and quieted down. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alec and Daniel exchanging a look, but she ignored them and waited until they slipped back out of the kitchen before closing her eyes, focusing on the spell surrounding Pedro.
It was like an octopus—its sticky tendrils threaded in and out of Pedro’s aura with a tenacious hold. It wasn’t strictly a witch’s spell. Traces of something else were weaved into the fabric. She’d never seen anything like it.
It was clear that the spell was failing, too. From what she could tell, it was supposed to remove specific memories and nothing more. But it was killing Pedro, cracking his aura like weeds could break up concrete. Or it would if she didn’t remove it.
With a deep breath that did nothing to relieve the weight on her shoulders, she took hold of the spell and started peeling it back from his body, slowly working each individual tentacle away as carefully as she could. She didn’t want to damage what was left of Pedro’s aura.
It took a long time.
When she was done, she gathered the remnants of the spell in her hands, pulling it up and away from Pedro. He slumped over slightly as he was released, and she stood, staring down at her hands for a second. A black oily substance covered them, one that a normal person couldn’t see.
It squirmed and stretched toward her like a living thing trying to find a new host. But she was outside its reach. Unnerved, she called the fire and burned it away.
“Was that it? The black spell?” Alec was in the doorway again.
So much for Elementals and witches being the only ones to sense spells. . .
“Do you actually see it or simply feel it?” he asked, the curiosity clear in his voice.
“Do you see it or just feel it?” she countered, not really comfortable revealing any details about herself.
“I. . .feel spells. But not the way you seem to. Not as a tangible thing I can hold or touch,” Alec replied.
Well, so much for keeping secrets around observant bloodsuckers.
When she didn’t elaborate, he gave up on an answer and instead asked, “Will he be better now?”
Pedro was unconscious now, slumped in his chair with most of his weight on the table.
“I’m not a healer, Alec,” Diana replied as she checked Pedro’s vital signs. “The spell was killing him. I had to remove it. But he won’t be the same. The damage to his psyche was extensive. He will start remembering what he lost. But probably not everything.”
For a long moment, Alec looked at her.
“What?” she asked stiffly. The way he stared at her was really starting to get on her nerves.
“Thanks for doing whatever you could,” he said simply.
She ignored him and turned to Pedro. “He’ll sleep for hours.”
“Daniel will stay with him,” he said.
She simply humphed in response, but couldn’t help thinking that any normal vamp would wash their hands of it now, reparations made. Most would weasel their way out of anything that smacked of responsibility.
Daniel came back from the living room and walked to Pedro, who was now sprawled across the table. He checked for a pulse. Diana gave him a reproving look, and the stocky man grinned at her sheepishly, revealing several good teeth and a few gold ones.
Fire: The Elementals Book One Page 6
